"Oi, why are you lads making all that ruckus?" Foreman Hugh Hefner shouted from his cabin.
"Alas two minutes and they are slacking, what a waste" he muttered as he heaved his heavy body off the armchair he had been resting on.
"Tsk tsk, if only Troy had been on the night shift too, work wudda been a lil bit easier" he spat as he exited the cabin, his footfalls on the creaky floorboards echoing throughout the woods.
Big Hugh as he was often called, was bigger than most. Standing proudly tall at a seven foot two with wide berth and broad shoulders, his hulking form overshadowed most men causing them to arch their necks to see his face when looking at him. His face was firmly fixed in a scowl with beady eyes, bushy beard, bald head and a scar which ran from his left eye down to his jaw making him look more of a caveman than a foreman.
"I got 'em from fighting a greasley" he would always say.
Despite his menacing looks, he was the kindest of souls. His boys would always say that he could never hurt a fly. Everyone knew that Big Hugh was nice but could also be as strict and prickly as a hedgehog when he wanted.
Trudging through the night, he cussed them under his breath, muttering profanities that would make even his ancestors roll in their graves. Days like this made him want to bang their heads against the trees instead of the axes.
"We've got a lotta work to do boys, and y'all better not be slacking off or I'm gonna kick ya off my team. You hear me?" Hefner bellowed into the dark, causing them to eventually go quiet.
"That's more like it.." turning around he entered the cabin once again. "Hell Troy wudda made a damn fine foreman, always so serious at work…like a soldier…a real fine man..hehehe.." he tutted and plopping down on the armchair, he wriggled around to make himself comfortable before grabbing his half filled mug of ale. "Ahhh… nothin' like a good ol' cup of ale to keep ya awake at night" he sighed after taking a huge sip from the mug.
Rubbing his hand around his hairy pot which had formed over years of constant indulgence, he tapped his fingers against the armrest and listened into the night while humming under his breath. The night was eerily silent, it seemed like his boys had finally decided to pick up their axes but he felt uneasy. The birds were no longer chirping and the leaves were still.
"Something doesn't feel right" he muttered, feeling a chill in his bones that had nothing to do with the night air. Realizing that he could not hear the sound of axes hitting wood, he got up slowly chugging down what remained of his ale.
"By the forest spirits, they must have fallen asleep with em' heads against the trees. Hope heads won't be rolling by the morrow" he spat ruefully before placing the mug on the side table.
Pushing the door open, he tugged his brown overcoat closer to his body as the night breeze rushed past his face sending a chill down his spine. Urging his legs to move, he rubbed his palms to dispel the cold as his boots crunched fallen branches and foliage
"they'd better not be slacking off…" he mumbled before coming to an abrupt stop. He felt it then, in the woods beyond the light from the cottage. Right there on the periphery of the clearing, he could feel the darkness. Fear, a feeling he had only experienced once before when he was stalked by a wolf in the dark when he was twelve, a predator was lurking in the shadows and he was its prey.
"Wh.. who's… who's there?" His voice trembled as he took shaky back steps. An ear splitting scream shattered the eerie silence which shadowed the night. His heart dropped and his feet stood still numbed in fear as his mind blanked out.
His legs moved without instructions from his mind. The fear from before was forgotten as leaves slapped across his scarred face. With only one thought, he prayed for the safety of his boys as he raced towards the source of the scream.
"Please let nothing happen to them" he repeated while dashing across the damp forest jumping over logs and small rocks.
Bursting out unto a clearing with logs neatly piled at a corner without stopping even for a quick glance, he dashed across the clearing slowing down just enough to yank an axe off the stomp of a fallen tree.
While running ahead he spotted something up ahead.
"Toby! Toby!!! Is that you!!!" He screamed.
Toby turned to look at him slowly, face frozen in fright and body heaving. He was struggling to voice out what he wanted to say.
"Toby just wait there I'm coming…where're the rest....." Big Hugh asked again now a few steps away, but his questions were cut short. Toby spurted blood with his head falling off to the side.
From behind him, he could see frails of black robes covered in the shadows.
"No…no….no…they can't just die…they're not dead….no!!!!!" Big Hugh broke down when he saw the bodies of his entire crew now that his eyes finally got used to the darkness. He sank to his knees burying his head in the sand. All gone, they were all gone. He barely registered the world around as he knelt, caught up in his own grief.
"Huh…there was one left?" A voiced asked, . " I thought all the workers followed me out…"
"He's the foreman, he stayed behind at the cabin" another voice replied "couldn't you do a cleaner job" it continued sounding pissed off.
"Cleaner job?... weren't we meant to attract attention? Tch you're so boring". The first retorted back, none of them caring about the axe welding man on the floor. "So should I finish him off?" signalling at Bigh Hugh "or are you going to do a neat job".
"Better finish what you started" the second replied wanting no part in it.
"Tch"
As if awoken from a dream, Big Hugh gripped the axe tighter and suddenly swung it at the figure aiming to take it out but it side stepped dodging completely.
"Hehe fiesty, you're just the type. Too bad" The voice chuckled eyeing his open back. Long fingers tore into his body and gripped his heart.
He got a glimpse of his attacker's face, his eyes widened in shock as the darkness claimed him. Only one thought resounded in his mind as he drew in his last breath
'Why'